Hand injury?

I've noticed lately (well, not really, just today) that my hand (left) has been giving me a lot of trouble.

It looks like maybe a tendon or something is inflamed or swollen or something, I'm not too sure. The only thing that I can think of is I've been doing a lot of snow removal lately, that's the only big thing outside of my normal lifting I've done differently.

Photo for diagnostic purposes:

It doesn't hurt me at all if I make an open hand or anything, it only hurts when I push the swollen area against something (bench press, snow shoveling, etc).

Emevas is right, none of us here is medically qualified. So take none of any advice you get here as expert.

Undertaking a repetitive activity like snowshoveling indicates in my (non-medical-professional) opinion that a blister is your most likely culprit.

I can tell you from personal experience that you have a nerve in that vicinity which serves the thumb. I severely damaged that nerve in my own hand via a broken beer bottle about 3 years ago. I have an 1-inch scar in just about the location you have indicated in your picture. And 3 years later, I still have a partial loss of sensation over half of my thumb.

So perhaps all the manual labor has created a pocket of inflammation atop that nerve, which is creating irritation.

The only advice I could offer for either of those possibilities is what you're already planning on doing: Lay off of it for a while. Any treatment beyond "leave it alone" should be advised by a physician who can physically assess your situation.

I've noticed lately (well, not really, just today) that my hand (left) has been giving me a lot of trouble.

It looks like maybe a tendon or something is inflamed or swollen or something, I'm not too sure. The only thing that I can think of is I've been doing a lot of snow removal lately, that's the only big thing outside of my normal lifting I've done differently.

Photo for diagnostic purposes:

It doesn't hurt me at all if I make an open hand or anything, it only hurts when I push the swollen area against something (bench press, snow shoveling, etc).

Any suggestions or ideas?

The discomfort you are feeling shouldn't make you worry too much.
As a test push with your right middlefinger and right ringfinger at the same place of your right hand. You will feel a small dull pain, the nerve is sensitive their even without a swollen patch above it.

I'm 90% sure that you have a fluid blister underneath the tissue and a bad charistic of fluids is that you can't make them more compact in size by pressure.
So pushing on it will put just extra pressure on the nerve.

I got those when I was spitting my garden (it was a big one). Just let your hand rest from manual training (weights, pull-ups, benchpressing and snowshuffeling) for the next three days.
If by that time the swelling is still there or hasn't become smaller (it takes some time for your body to remove fluidpacks from muscle tissue) than go to a doctor, but from my experience I would say don't worry.

Originally Posted by Jiujitsu77

You know you are crazy about BJJ/Martial arts when...

Originally Posted by Humanzee

...your books on Kama Sutra and BJJ are interchangeable.

Originally Posted by jk55299 on Keysi Fighting Method

It looks like this is a great fighting method if someone replaces your shampoo with superglue.

A small tip that I can give you when shoveling snow or spitting a garden: try not to use your tumbs to grip the shaft of the shovel.

Use the same mechanics in your hands as if you would be pulling yourself up at a bar. There you also don't use your thumbs.

It will take some practise, especially if you try to remove the snow from the shovel. Instead of throwing it away, you have to go to the place where you want it and than rotate the shovelshaft as an axis. If at the end is also a handgrip instead of an orb, you can use that type of grip mechanics with your right hand also.

Originally Posted by Jiujitsu77

You know you are crazy about BJJ/Martial arts when...

Originally Posted by Humanzee

...your books on Kama Sutra and BJJ are interchangeable.

Originally Posted by jk55299 on Keysi Fighting Method

It looks like this is a great fighting method if someone replaces your shampoo with superglue.